Those of us who are naturally strong have to be squashed by the Almighty in order to give up our own strength and rely on God alone.

This is the mystery of God using suffering to make the strong weak and the weak strong.

Sometimes, we are weak in some areas and strong in others. But, the truth is that we have to learn to rely on God alone.

I have been in this position for over fifteen months. To rely on others is hard for me, as I was so capable for so long. But, God undermines our false confidence in ourselves so that we come to Him in truth.

All we have comes from God and all we have is gift. The ego does not want to admit this, clinging on to what is supposedly "mine".

One does not want to get ill, or have cancer, or live in poverty, or lose loved ones, but God allows all suffering for one reason-to get rid of the ego, so that He can give us His strength and His Own Self.

For those who are weak, God gives strength beyond their imagination. For those who are strong, God brings humiliation, so that they see who they really are.

All of this movement of the spirit involves both justice and mercy. Justice comes to us so that we can atone somewhat for our sins, and make reparation. Mercy, which is the giving of compassion to someone who deserves punishment, is sheer gift. Justice is what is due to us, the reality of consequences.

At this end of a year, we can stop an thank God for His wisdom in how He moves in our lives.

May we benefit from His loving care, even if that care is intense suffering.

Extrapolating from the comments made below by Ben Carson, it dawned on me why Catholic vocations are at such a low tide-or yet another reason than those commonly defined.

What Ben Carson notes about the black youth not growing up respecting authority is true for the way Catholic parents are referring to the clergy, even in so-called good Catholic homes.

We had good friends who were priests who served as brilliant examples of good priests for my son. We did not speak against the clergy in any general anti-clerical sense, but I have seen over and over in families where priests are so criticized that any young man who may consider a vocation would be discouraged from doing so.

Authority must be respected in the role of authority. Whether a particular person measures up to that role is another question entirely.

I respect the pope because he is the pope. I respect my bishop because he is the bishop.

The merits of the person are separate from the office, which is something many Catholics simply do not understand.

The great divide in the Church over the EF and NO families has caused problems with vocations. A young man must never think the NO in invalid, for example, and think he has a vocation. He must be willing to say both, unless he joins an order where the charism is only saying the EF.

Respect for the authority of the Church must be part of the young person's character if he thinks he is called to the priesthood. We have enough priests who do not love the Church and we absolutely do not need more like that, either liberal or conservative.

Sadly, with parents wanting to be friends rather than parents, too many young men have not had experience with authority. They simply do not know how to submit. And, an adversarial attitude is not the mark of a vocation.

I see this daily.

And, this attitude would be a deterrent to a young man considering a vocation. Or, he simply would not last in the seminary. Only a young man who is humble, who is teachable, can learn to be a priest.

Thinking and talking about St. Thomas a Becket yesterday brought up some interesting ideas through a friend of mine. St. Thomas Becket was killed partly because he had rightly insisted on a priest getting an ecclesial trial for a serious crime, and in the meantime, the king's man, a knight, killed the priest, which is still grounds for excommunication.

The priest should have gone on trial by the Church and then by the secular state. Church first, State second.

Thomas Becket was standing up for the rights of the Church regarding clergy over the State interference. That the priest was wrong is clear in history, but there were procedures, which meant that the State honored the Church's judiciary. Canon law first, secular law second--or, better, that the secular law would reflect canon law.

As it should.

When any secular state takes power away from the Church, that state is not honoring the way God wants His Church to be protected. It is the duty of every state to protect the one, true, holy, and apostolic Church. Of course, the secularists deny this and so want "equality" and not merely tolerance.

There is a difference.

That the Church and the State would have found the priest guilty and that he would have been executed is sure.

These thoughts bring me to the problem of Pelagianism and universalism-the belief that all men are saved.

First of all, King Henry did something outside of Church law. By taking law into his own hands and not deferring to the Church, he showed that his view was like that of the Pelagians, that is, that one can achieve heaven, eternal life, sanctity on one's own efforts, with good works, and not with grace. The Church teaches that not only is grace necessary for salvation, that is, the need for the Redemptive action of Christ, which gives us grace through Him, but that grace helps us avoid future sins.

When both Original Sin is denied, and when grace is seen as unnecessary, this leads to an idea that everyone may be saved without Christ.

In fact, the Church condemns the idea that we can do good works without grace.

Pelagians deny free will as well. This is popular in our day and age of over-psychoanalyzing sin to the point where no one is guilty of choosing evil, which we are.

Those who believe or have some type of fairy-tale idea that all men, women and children go to heaven forget all the above points.

Original Sin is a reality and it darkens our intellect, makes us more vulnerable to sin, and robs us of eternal life.

This is why Christ came, to free us from Original Sin, and the great icon of this is the Harrowing of Hell-to which we refer in the Creed.

Back to Becket...

The saint realized that one cannot contravene Church teaching for the sake of a good end, or in the case of excommunicating those bishops who did not follow proper order in the coronation of Henry's son, not following Church procedure but giving in to the king.

Only the Archbishop of Canterbury could give the right of coronation, which was and still is a religious duty and rite, not merely secular, at least in Catholic countries. Roger de Pont L'Évêque, the archbishop of York, Gilbert Foliot, the bishop of London, and Josceline de Bohon were excommunicated for going over the Archbishop's authority to give the oath of coronation.Again, we see an interpretation of Church law and practice being flaunted by those who wanted to undermine the power of Becket and therefore place the Church under State control. What King Henry II could not do, Henry VIII succeeded in doing and bringing disgrace, terror and murder into the realm.If there is no grace needed for good works, one can be saved outside the Church. Not so...If there is no Original Sin, all people are saved. Not so.There is a place for those who are not saved in and through Christ and His Church and that is hell. People want a generalized type of mercy without justice. Becket was standing up for real justice, which could include mercy, regarding the criminal priest. Without justice, there can be no mercy, and people continue to sin, expecting no consequences. Pelagians today, as in centuries past, undermine the authority of the Church, not only with regard to the sacred teachings from Scripture, which the Church preserves, but regarding temporal punishment due to sin, not only a Scriptural truth, but one clearly defined in the teachings of the Church.The universalists want everyone to be saved, thus falling into the Pelagianist denial of free will and grace. One cannot gain heaven without grace and freely choosing to follow Christ. That God brings some people into heaven through the merits of the Catholic Church is a truism, explained here under the label of merit.But, as Pelagius denied the need for Christ's Redemptive work on the Cross, so to do those modern universalists. If all men, women and children go to heaven, why bother to evangelize anyone, which is a command of Christ, God Himself?Pelagians want salvation without the Church, without the sacraments, without grace. They want the so-called good works done by a person to bring one to heaven.Just as the knight thought he was doing a good by killing a criminal priest, so the Pelagians confuse means and end. to be continued....

From what I have personally witnessed in four extended visits here, since 2011, I do not believe there will ever be a Tridentine Mass culture here in Malta.

The older generation is fast disappearing, and those seventy and younger are content with the Novus Ordo. Too many priests in high positions do not support the TLM or even the Latin NO. As noted, one prominent priest said from the pulpit that "Latin is divisive."

Even conservative priests do not push for, work for, or promote the TLM. I only know of two who say it privately, one is Rome and the other, now that he is a pastor, may not be saying it at all.
There are 423,282 inhabitants in Malta, with the largest increase since 2013 being non-Catholics.In fact, most of the new immigrants are not Christians.To pretend that this will be a haven for the TLM seems to be wishful thinking. In fact, the climate for having any, much less regular TLMs, is worse than four years ago.I have not met any Maltese seminarians from the seminary here. Whether they are pro-TLM...?

IMO, without the TLM, there will be no renewal of the Church here and Catholicism will die.

“This country was supposed to be a country where the government conformed to the will of the people, not the people conforming to the will of the government.”No dads, no moral framework, no discipline, no respect for male authority...No election in 2016...which I have said for years....wake up, America.

Let me start with preaching and teaching on hell. There are two aspects of this discussion. The first is that there are some people who are living in hell now on earth. They may know this. Drug addicts who are sick and dying, those depressed with porn, the greedy, who have realized their lives are empty. Those who know they are in hell do not need hell preached to them, but life. The Light of the world, Christ, will bring them the life which these desperate people know is gone from their lives. Therefore, they are open to life, because they are aware of death.

However, the vast majority of people who have chosen some evil, such as adultery, homosexual sex, fornication of any kind, drunkenness and gross consumerism do not know they are living in hell because they are living in a bubble of deceit they have created for themselves.

The man who has affairs and says he cannot live without sex is lying to himself, The woman who has had several abortions in order to keep her high-flying job is lying to herself about life and the meaning of sex. Those who want more and more things, and have not reached the saturation point of lust and greed lie to themselves about what brings true happiness.

All sinners who do not convert lie about consequences. To those who are not desperate, talking about hell is a good teaching tool. Discussing hell must be a wake-up call for some.

As to preaching heaven, only those who believe in heaven and who are fed up with life on earth as they have made it would be open to this Good News of salvation

Discussing God and His desire that we spend eternity with Him in heaven is also good time spent with believers who need to work on perfection.

Again, as I have written in the past, we need to walk away from those who are persistently closed to the Good News and bring God's beautiful plan for salvation to those who are open.

Only the Holy Spirit can open hearts and convert. We only plant seeds and nurture growth, but to avoid discussing the afterlife is avoiding the deeper discussions of the need for Salvation and the Incarnation. We must preach the Gospel to the world as we are commanded to do so by Christ.

His words are not a suggestion, but marching orders.

Mark 16:15New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.

All are born in Original Sin. Those who are baptized no longer have Original Sin. Again, there is a difference in those who are baptized and those who are not. We are changed in baptism. We become children of God and heirs of heaven.

The saints "capitalized" on the graces given to them in baptism. Now, too many people, the lapsed Catholics especially, squander those graces, like dropping a treasure into the ocean instead of using it.

Saints cooperate with grace. Those who chose evil, and finally, damnation, do not.

1 John 2:12-17New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

12 I am writing to you, little children,because your sins are forgiven on account of his name.13 I am writing to you, fathers,because you know him who is from the beginning.I am writing to you, young people,because you have conquered the evil one.14 I write to you, children,because you know the Father.I write to you, fathers,because you know him who is from the beginning.I write to you, young people,because you are strongand the word of God abides in you,and you have overcome the evil one.

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; 16 for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever.

Leon Bloy

Guild of Blessed Titus Brandsma

The Church Must Not Be Defensive

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Too many Church leaders do not think, or do not think as Catholics

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GUILD PRAYER

God our Father, source of life and freedom, through Your Holy Spirit you gave the Carmelite, Titus Brandsma the courage to affirm human dignity even in the midst of suffering and degrading persecution.

Grant us that same spirit so that, in refusing all compromise with error we may always and everywhere give coherent witness to Your abiding presence among us.